27 March 2014

The nicest acceptance letters I’ve ever had

I mentioned a while back that I was up to my eyeballs in writing. Between Christmas Eve and mid March, I submitted seven pieces of academic writing to editors.

In the past two weeks, I’ve had two of those article accepted for publication. This make me very happy. What has made me happier was that they were accepted without revisions. Papers accepted “as is” are the baby pigeons of academia: you know that logically they must exist, but you might go your whole life without seeing one.

And the editor’s comments made me bounce up and down. First this:

I don’t know when I have enjoyed reading a paper so much!

Then this:

I have to say that I am not often in the position of having no changes to suggest, but I really like the piece and don’t want to muck with it.

What’s the secret? These two papers had an advantage: neither was a data-driven, experimental paper with original research. That made the reviewing process easier.

I post this not to gloat. (Well, not just to goat, I guess. A teensy little bit of gloating.) You know, scientific publishing is so often so long and so hard, that I just felt compelled to point out that occasionally, you win one.